Dark Needs at Night’s Edge (Immortals After Dark #5)(37)
Author: Kresley Cole

Néomi sidled up to him to peek out. Two petite women were hurrying out from a sports car into the stormy night. "Those are Valkyrie? They’re stunning. Is that what Lore women look like?"

"Some. The redhead is Myst the Coveted. She is Nikolai’s. Kaderin the Coldhearted is Sebastian’s blonde."

Néomi had heard so much about those two that she felt as if she knew them –

"I’d planned to kill them, too." When Néomi glared up at him, he raised his chained hands. "Past tense. See? Already I’m improving."

Lips thinned, she studied his expression. He seemed earnest.

The Valkyrie began arguing in the muddy drive, drawing Néomi’s attention back to them. Myst seemed intent on keeping Kaderin from the manor. When the clash turned physical, Néomi went wide-eyed. I don’t know them at all. "They’re punching each other," she said in disbelief. "I figured they were fierce since Kaderin is an assassin, but to hit each other?"

Conrad shrugged. "Nature of the beast, I’m afraid. They like to fight."

"I won’t let you do this!" Myst struck out with a jab that connected with Kaderin’s mouth.

Kaderin swiped her sleeve over her bleeding lip. "Just like that first Talisman’s Hie – still sucker-punching me!"

"I’ll do worse. If you turn Conrad over to Kristoff, deep down the brothers will never forgive us. If they wanted him given up, they would’ve done it themselves!"

With a shove, Kaderin said, "I don’t know about you, but I want my husband back!"

Kristoff had imprisoned them? And wouldn’t free them until he had Conrad? Néomi glanced at him. His expression was inscrutable as he said, "And that answers the question of what has happened to my brothers."

"I want mine as well!" Myst said, returning the shove. "But this isn’t the way. For ages, Nikolai has searched for Conrad. All that worry, all that effort, for nothing?"

Apparently, Nikolai was still putting forth the effort – he hadn’t turned Conrad over.

"Wait a second." Myst narrowed her gaze. "What in the hell are we doing? We’re Valkyrie – we take what we want."

"What do you mean?" Kaderin asked.

"Kristoff won’t let our men go? Then Kristoff needs to be taught a lesson. I say we capture the whole bloody castle."

There was a dangerous light to Kaderin’s eyes. "Fucking A."

"Just in our coven alone, Regin, Cara, and Annika would spoil for a chance to war with vampires, any vampires. They wouldn’t care that they’d actually be helping a few. And I know the inside of Mount Oblak like the back of my hand."

Kaderin’s lips curled into a threatening grin. "More fangs for my collection."

Then they were gone as swiftly as they’d arrived.

"Go get them, girls," Conrad muttered.

"Those small women couldn’t really start a war?"

"They might be small, but either one of them could lift a train." His tone absent, he said, "Kristoff’s sitting across the world – with no idea that hell has just been unleashed against him."

22

When one is insane, it’s best to simplify things.

To get by in life, Conrad had organized his existence into a system of rewards and obstacles to rewards. He’d identified the reward he wanted: Néomi in the flesh, his to possess.

The obstacles: his captivity, her lack of a body, and Tarut’s possible curse.

Essentially, Conrad had a list of things to do, a short list. Get free, execute Tarut. Figure out how to resurrect Néomi.

Chapter 13

The last wasn’t impossible. Conrad just had to find and coerce the right sorcerer to do it. He knew that there were only so many in the entire world and all other dimensions who could resurrect beings. And even fewer who would.

As for his captivity – the bottom line was that his brothers were not coming back, or at least, not soon. Not until after a war. If they got out alive.

Could the Valkyrie take Mount Oblak? Certainly possible. But it would take time to prepare.

Time he didn’t have. His blood supply wasn’t infinite, and the threat of Tarut weighed on him.

Tonight Conrad would get started on his list.

When he’d awakened this evening, Néomi had brought him a cup of blood, then set off on the paper quest. Good. He wanted her away. Collecting a bath towel, he started down the stairs.

One way or another, Conrad was going to remove the chains. He couldn’t break them, so that left him with one other option.

He’d found a woodcutter’s ax in the old toolshed. A cutting stump sat behind it.

If he was drinking heavily of blood, he could regenerate a hand in three to four days. He’d have to do them one at a time of course, so regenerating would take at least six days. Which meant he would miss the gathering, a promising hunting ground. Killing tended to get complicated without hands –

Suddenly, he heard… a phone ringing? Frowning, he hastened after the faint sound, coming upon a small sitting room downstairs, well off to the side of the house.

The ringing seemed to come from inside the wall. Tossing the towel over his shoulder, he raised his bound hands to slap his palms against the wall – it sounded hollow. His lips curled. A moving panel. He’d seen them in older houses before.

After determining the edges, he scanned it for a latch. Maybe it was in the wainscoting? He felt along the dingy white wood. Got it. When he pressed it, a faint click sounded.

He shoved the panel open and found newspapers were stacked behind it, but then she wouldn’t have to enter through an opened door.

Inside, he narrowed his eyes. The room was a studio – her dance studio, with attached barres and mirror-covered walls. So this is here-and-there, her secret place.

The space was overtly feminine, decorated with faded pinks and reds, silks and crumbling lace. But the mirrors were all broken, with strike patterns as if someone had taken a fist to them – or a shot of telekinesis.

Against a far wall was a small cot, padded with blankets that would never warm her. An unused pair of ballet slippers was tossed casually atop them. Beside a safe on the floor, he spied a sizable pile of pebbles and stockpiled cases of liquor.

On a table, he found masses of odds and ends displayed like treasures. Among the offerings were Sebastian’s money clip, Nikolai’s now quiet cell phone, and the hair comb from Murdoch’s pocket. Néomi had probably treasured the comb because she found it pretty.

She’s going to have a thousand of them.

He’d stumbled upon a little ghost’s nest, filled with trinkets stolen from the living to connect her to them. Feeling dazed, he sank onto the cot. This is everything she has. And Elancourt is the entire world to her.